All I Ever Wanted: Nate Silva's Story
by Ryuranger
Summary: Always a genius or child prodigy. Never a son or a brother. What was Nate's life like before Grid Battleforce?


_**Author's note:**_ _The following takes a look at the early days of Nate Silva. It's the first of a few standalone short stories I'm putting together in a collection called "All I Ever Wanted." This has nothing to do with my Ultimate Power Rangers series._

_**Author's second note:**__ I'm assuming Nate was four-years-old around 2004 (Dino Thunder era) and six-years-old around 2006 (Mystic Force era). If I'm wrong…assume a time traveling starship captain messed up the timeline. That's my go-to excuse for every continuity error in every show and story._

* * *

**Absent**

Most 4-year-olds played with Legos and Hot Wheels. Nate had a different hobby- he took apart kitchen appliances.

The boy sat at his parent's coffee table with his tiny legs crossed on the floor. He flipped open a laptop and turned on his favorite Youtube Channel, Professor Proton, making sure to leave enough room for his latest project. The guts of a toaster cluttered the table, along with the insides of what may or may not have been an air fryer at some point.

A child genius, he didn't have trouble navigating the circuits, chips, and wiring. And if he ever had a question, he had Google, along with the books from his parents' library, including an encyclopedia set. He found the set outdated and used a red Sharpie to make corrections where appropriate- imagine thinking the atom was the smallest unit of matter!

Several encyclopedia volumes sat on the floor to the right of the coffee table. The books were neatly stacked and organized along with middle-and-high-school texts on insects, biology, and chemistry, and at least one magazine on the latest trends in Robotic Process Automation. On the left side of the coffee table, Nate preferred to keep his fiction novels, having already read more than 190 books, including Lord of the Flies, Huck Finn and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Nate devoured any book he could get his hands on, having taught himself to read at the age of 2, to the surprise of none of his caregivers. After all, he spoke his first words at 7-months-old and often recited multiplication tables instead of nursery rhymes.

Unfortunately, Nate had few people to share his recitals with. He lived in a massive house near Reefside, California, but his parents worked overseas. An only child, he saw them rarely and spent most of his time alone.

His parents left him with caregivers, but these supposed givers of care did little more than the basics. Cleaning and laundry. Cooking and shopping. Nate never even learned most of their names, so he gave them numerical designations.

Today, he knew he would likely see Butler Five. And indeed, the stuffy old man walked into the room just as Nate turned on the television to watch the news (he kept Professor Proton on too, of course. He could multi-task).

Balding, with a scruffy beard and square jaw, Butler Five had a no-nonsense look. Nate suspected the man hated children. But Nate tried to be nice anyway.

The boy looked up and smiled. "Hey. Is it time for dinner already?"

Butler Five nodded, his eyes fixed on the mess Nate had made. "Yes, but what…" He shook his head. "Jesus, Nate, you can't keep doing this."

"It's OK," Nate said, keeping his smile wide. "I'm almost done. I'll have it all cleaned up before bed."

"What is it you're even doing?"

"It's for the Science Fair tomorrow," Nate said, not bothering to hide his excitement about the event. "Do you know if mom and dad are coming? Last time I talked to 'em they said they'd try to come maybe."

Butler Five shifted his weight back and forth- Nate wondered if the man's shoes hurt his feet, or if he perhaps suffered from some sort of spinal disorder?

"Nate," the man said. "No, they won't be able to make it

Nate felt his throat tighten, which seemed to happen at the oddest times, typically at night when he tucked himself into bed, or in the mornings when he brushed his teeth and got dressed. He didn't understand the feeling.

"Oh, OK," Nate whispered, keeping his eyes on his equipment.

Butler Five muttered a few more things Nate didn't care to listen to, and then left the boy alone with his project.

* * *

Hours passed. Nate let the news fall to background noise…until he heard the screaming.

He glanced at the TV. The newscast showed smoke and licks of flame. An explosion? Men, women and children scattered, running and screaming, news camera shaking. Nate had never seen anything like it. He didn't understand it and couldn't look away.

The boy's chest ached while he watched, and he didn't know why. Fear? All those people, what was happening to them? They must have felt confused, lost, frightened.

Yes, Nate feared for them, but something else. Some other feeling. What?

He paid closer attention. And he noticed. Mothers picked up their children and held them tight. Fathers led their families by the hand. Despite the chaos and fear, Nate felt…jealous?

That couldn't be right, he thought, and mentally kicked himself for not spending enough time in psychology books. How could he be jealous of people going through something so…scary? Terrifying, even.

Still, when Nate saw crying children held tightly by their mothers, comforted, he ached.

The camera view shifted. The newscast zoomed into the source of the terror. A…no way. Was that a real monster?

Nate's mind went in a thousand directions at once. His emotions shuffled aside, and his brilliant boy brain went into overdrive. What was that creature? It had the characterizes of a marsupial but also a reptilian tail somehow? And it was taller than most people. Were its fists giant machine guns? They looked like giant machine guns. Where did this monster come from? Alien? Bio experiment gone wrong? Prank show?

The view shuffled as the cameraman moved for a wider shot.

A powerful voice shouted from off-screen.

"_Si-kuyah!_" A black blur bashed the monster with what looked like a flying sidekick.

The blur- a man actually, dressed head to toe in what looked like black spandex, but surely it wasn't spandex, maybe a nano-fiber?- pulled out a short staff and snapped into a fighting stance.

"_Dino Thunder! Black Ranger!"_ the man shouted.

"Whoa…" Nate whispered. "Phenomenal…"

The Black Ranger launched at the monster with a flurry of kicks and sword swings (Nate immediately Googled "martial arts styles" while he watched). The Ranger's blade sparked on impact- what was it made of for that to happen?- and each blow forced the monster backward.

Nate opened up two more tabs on his web browser so he could search for "Dino Thunder" and "Real monsters."

On the news, the Black Ranger stepped back and turned a dial on the hilt of his weapon.

"_Energy Orb!"_ The Ranger whipped his staff around and formed an orb of purple power. He swatted the orb; it shot the monster with the speed and force of a cannonball, hurling the creature offscreen.

The camera shook again- more explosions and screaming, and less than a minute after, an odd noise that sounded like a burst of rainfall, followed by massive booms, like the footsteps of giants.

The camera tilted up. And Nate saw it. The monster somehow grew to gigantic proportions and faced…no…it couldn't be…

Nate's eyes opened wider.

What. Was. That?! A big robot dinosaur?!

Nate didn't even remember moving closer to the TV, but he nearly bumped his head against the screen from leaning so close. Somehow, this Ranger person had summoned a big robot dinosaur that looked like an armored brachiosaurus. And- no way!

Compartments flipped open within the dinosaur's armor. And three more dinosaurs charged out! A tyrannosaurus, triceratops, and a pterodactyl.

The boy's hands flew to Google, opening more tabs to search for "armored dinosaurs" and "dinosaur robots." Were they machines? Living creatures in armor? Where did they come from? How did they-

No. Way!

The news captured images of the three dinosaurs combing to form a giant robot warrior. A Megazord, the newscaster called it.

Nate almost fell over as he scrambled to Google "Megazord."

Suddenly, the images distorted and went to black, then shifted to the view of a newscaster sitting behind a desk, caught off guard.

"_I'm sorry,"_ the man said, _"it seems we've lost our feed. Kelly, can you tell us what's…"_

Nate shot to his feet, his eyes alight with excitement and wonder. He had to tell someone! Talk to someone about this!

He dashed into the hallway. Empty.

The kitchen and library. Empty.

He saw Maid Three and Butler Four in the Garage, but they ducked away instead of taking the time to speak with him, muttering something about the boy being odd.

Nate felt the ache in his throat tighten. Why did he feel that ache?

He turned around and walked back towards the living room.

The boy knew that what he saw on the news changed everything he had ever learned. Monsters and Rangers. What did that mean for the world? He needed to know more. He needed to understand. What. Did. This. Mean?

And why did he feel so terrified at the same time he felt excited. If monsters like that were real…if they had enough power that a single one could cause such chaos, carnage, and panic…

Maybe he'd ask his parents about this attack when he talked to them next.

Maybe…

"I want my mom and dad…" he muttered quietly as if by reflex. "Mom…"

He sat back down at his coffee table and started his research, looking up everything he could find about Rangers and monsters, from their first appearances in Angel Grove to their recent sightings in Reefside.

He dove into learning as much as he could.

But he couldn't stop thinking about the newscast. The attack.

With all the monsters and Rangers, destruction and chaos, one image stood out in Nate's mind. One image cemented itself in his memory: the sight of parents holding their children.

**END**


End file.
